


Practiced Patterns

by TheFlamingNymph



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Batarian Slavers - Freeform, Colony, Colony Raid, Drell - Freeform, F/M, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Personal Injury, Slavery, Troubled Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 14:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5008822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlamingNymph/pseuds/TheFlamingNymph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Original Character Backstory</p><p>The colony of Arashu's Grace is a small one, filled with drell looking to get away from the humid conditions of Kahje and the shadow of the Compact. Balancing the needs of the colony and the needs of her marriage should have come easily enough to her, and yet one is falling apart as the other thrives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practiced Patterns

**Author's Note:**

> This is some backstory set in the AU in which Thane Dies, and Kolyat and Etuni meet later in the timeline. Explores the relationship between Etuni and her first husband, Toyal.

Etuni kept her eyes forward as she finished packing away a lunch for Eda, not once looking up as Toyal moved around the kitchen, preparing for his own day. It was impossible not to notice the quick jerky motions out of the corner of her eyes, the sharp sounds as he set things down too hard, or closed a cupboard too fast. His emotions were always an open book to her, an open announcement that she didn’t know how to react to. She supposed that was the problem.

“Etuni.” He was standing off to the side of her, and she didn’t look at him as she snapped the lid of the food container shut. His fingers were warm on her arm as he grasped it, firm but gentle, much like that morning. _Hands move over skin in practiced patterns, eliciting the pleasured responses he seeks. Mouth explores the curves and valleys, nipping, licking, sucking. Pleasure, no passion. Routine. A difference as subtle as breathing, but enough. Too much._ “Etuni, please, look at me.”

There’s pain in his voice, but she couldn’t look, wouldn’t look. She hadn’t the energy for this today. Eda needed to be dropped off with the other children, and she needed to meet with the agriculture specialists and see if there was anything that could be done to help facilitate more bountiful harvests. Importing food was keeping the colony below the wealth level she’d prefer for her people. She moved her arm from his grasp and his fingers slid down her arm as she moved, but seized on her fingers, his other hand moving so her hand was cupped in his. “Please, Ni.”

She did, feeling a dull ache in her chest at the pain she found in his eyes. His thumb rubbed across her knuckles as he watched her, searching her eyes. Her free hand hung at her side and she shifted her weight, waiting for him to say something. “Can we please talk about this? Tonight, after Eda’s in bed?”

Her first impulse was to say no, a quick childish impulse that hinted at her not being as calm about the situation as she would have liked. She held his gaze for a long time before she nodded, sighing. “Yes. We can speak of it tonight.”

Relief washed over Toyal’s face and one of his large hands came up to cup her cheek, and he pressed a kiss into her lips softly. “Thank you, Ni. I love you,”

“I love you too.” Her chest throbbed harder and sharper, but she had no time to examine the reasons why as she watched him stoop down and catch the little yellow and green blur that shot past her leg.

“Papa!” Eda had already successfully gotten herself situated in the crook of her father’s arm by the time he stood, her small arms around his neck and her face buried against his shoulder. Etuni’s fingers reached up to stroke the back of her daughter’s head, getting a shy smile in return.

“There’s Papa’s beautiful little girl.” Toyal kissed the top of her head, grinning when she looked up. “It’s time to say bye to Mama so we can get going. Mrs. Fait is going to be watching you today. You know Mrs. Fait, right?”

Eda nodded a bit in response, turning her head and blowing Etuni a quick kiss. “Bye bye, Mama.”

Toyal readjusted the girl in his arms, kissing Etuni once more, this time on her forehead, before heading towards the door. “And Papa will pick you up at lunch time, how does that sound?” A happy giggle answered the question, and Etuni looked at the lunch she had packed, forgotten on the counter, as the door slid shut with a faint beep behind them.

 

It was about lunch time, hours later, when he messaged her. She had been out in the fields with her farmers, looking over their equipment, and discussing what they would need to do their jobs more efficiently. Her omni-tool flared to life as she accepted the message, and Toyal’s voice crackled through. “Etuni, can you hear the alarms from there? Something's been spotted overhead."

"The alarm isn't sounding over here. Are you sure?" Her words towards her came easier now than that morning, but they always had when talking business with him. She turned her gaze upwards, but whatever the sirens were warning of, it was not visible from her position.

"Positive. I'm told it's a ship, refused all requests at identification. It looks Batarian." His voice was tight with worry. Batarians meant pirates or slavers, and they weren’t a wealthy enough colony to attract pirates.

"Batarian?... Get Eda to the temple with the other children. Warn everyone as you go, anyone that has a gun, everyone else should take refuge in the temple. I'll meet you there." She cut the communication off from there. Her own gun was still in its box at home, it had been years since she needed it.

The door seemed to take forever to blink from red to green and slide open. She hadn't encountered a Batarian on her way back, but her luck would only hold for so long. Her footsteps were loud down the hall as she entered her bedroom. Part of her sparked in annoyance at the mussed sheets of the bed. Toyal had sworn he would make it as she made Eda’s lunch. She chastised herself for such a trivial thought as she crouched, pulling the locked box out from under the bed, punching the code in and pulling the gun and her few spare thermal clips from the protective case. The thermal clips were deposited into her pocket and she held her breath as she heard movement outside her house.

She crawled low, under the windows as she returned to the main room, peeking through one just long enough to see slavers filing down the roads, guns at the ready. She crouched low and waited for a break in the line before she opened the door and darted out. She was almost to cover again when she heard the cry of discovery from a rear patrol.

She raised the gun and the first few shots fell short of her targets, her aim wild and unsteady as she tried to take the last few strides to cover. Pain flared and radiated from her side as she fell behind the cover. She panted as she ejected her thermal clip, hands shaking as she found another in her pocket and jammed it in. She poked her head around the corner of the shed she'd hidden behind, trying to line her shots better this time. One went down with a gurgle as a bullet tore through his throat. One of his partners cursed and pulled a grenade, lobbing it at her. Blind instinct grabbed her as she moved from cover to seize it, a prayer to Amonkira and Arashu on her lips as she lobbed it back. It exploded mid air near the slavers. She choked on the dust and smoke as she crawled back to cover.

“Ni? Ni, are you there?” Toyal’s voice sounded panicked as it crackled through her omnitool, no doubt he had heard the commotion from wherever he was. She couldn’t answer as she assessed the damage, her fingers probing the wet mess of her stomach, finding the entry wound of the bullet around her waist above her left hip. She cried out in pain, holding her hand over it. “Etuni! Gods, answer me, please!”

“I’m here, Toyal.” She managed after a few more seconds, breathing tightly through her teeth.

“There were a group of them, a grenade went off.”

“Damnit, are you okay?”

“I’m not certain. I’ve been shot. Toyal… I’m sorry, I have not been the wife you deserve.” The words had come unbidden. She wasn’t sure which hurt worse, the pain in her side, or the throb that had started in her chest again. “I have been distant, even cold, and you have done nothing to deserve it. I… Toyal…”

“Etuni, don’t talk like that. Just get to the temple and we’ll talk this out, okay? Eda and I will be waiting for you.” His voice was firm, but warm, and rougher than it should have been.

“I will do my best… I love you. Stay safe, give Eda a kiss from Mama… tell her I will be there soon.”

Static responded, and she hoped he got the message. She forced herself back up and onto her feet, one hand clutching her wound, the other fastened on Siyet’s gun. She peeked out from cover and then clenched her teeth as she ran down the street, trying to keep low, out of sight of the batarians. A lifetime later, the streets dumped her into the open courtyard in front of the temple, and batarians were too close.

They hadn’t yet noticed her, and first one went down in two shots to his back. The others went on alert as he fell. She was too slow in finding cover, and pain exploded through her shoulder. She bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood as she stifled a cry of pain. Their footsteps were still approaching though, and she forced herself up despite the pain. She fired wildly, her vision blurring even as she tried to focus on her targets.

But they fell as her gun clicked, the thermal clip spent. Her hand was slippery and shaking as she ejected it and found a spare in her pocket, slipping it in. She staggered to her feet, forcing herself towards the temple door. Her weight fell against it as she raised her omnitool to disengage the lock. The sight of her startled those closest to the door, and a strong arm slid under her good one, supporting her weight. "They're retreating, ma'am. I think those three were the last of them." It was Relti’s voice, his voice like the crunching of gravel beneath feet..

"How many did we lose, Relti? Do we know?" She was panting, and aware of someone applying medi-gel to her wounds.

"We... Don't have a final total, ma'am. We can confirm some taken, we have a few names..."  
The hesitation in his voice made her stomach churn, and she forced herself to meet his eyes.

"Tell me."

"Toyal, ma'am. He handed Eda over to Oroti and went back out, looking for survivors… Looking for you. Masin tried following him, and saw them take him. It… it, uh, took an entire squad to subdue him, I’m told."

"I see. Eda? Where is Eda?" She pulled herself away from him, scanning the crowd for her daughter.

"She's with the other children. He did wait to make sure she was comfortable before he left."

"Good. You'll be able to find me with her if I am needed for anything." She walked away, the medi-gel already dulling the pain of her wounds as she sought Eda out, gathering the small girl into her arms. She never looked so much like her father as she did now, with her coloring just a step off from his. The dip of her brow plates and the tip of her tongue protruding from the side of her mouth as she puzzled something out.

"Mama!" Her little arms scrabbled up and around Etuni's neck, and she held her close, fingers stroking over her head in a comforting manner, streaks of blood following her fingers.

"I'm here. Have you been having fun with your friends? Were you coloring? Show me, my sweet one"

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos make my day, comments make my entire life. Especially on fics like this full of original characters. Go one, put some words in the box down there and hit send.


End file.
